Christian Hospital Taxila made headlines in 2002 when a grenade attack on a chapel inside killed four Christian nurses. Pope John Paul II was deeply grieved by the “reprehensible assaults on innocent life.”
Established in 1922, the facility specializes in eye dis-eases and occupies 38 acres in Taxila, 40 kilometers west of Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad.
Swedish nun Wenny Lekardal, who served here as a nurse for 27 years, was award-ed the President’s Award for Pride of Performance this March. The Swedish embassy in Pakistan shared video footage of the event on its Facebook page.
However, scandals of nepotism, corruption and maladministration lurk behind the scenes.
“Another Christian institute is getting closed. The community should raise its voice aga-inst these incompetent people. Government or other forces might nationalize it. We strongly demand that hospital board members take urgent action against this administration,” Roheel Zafar Shahi, an activist, stated in a Facebook post.
The accompanying videos showed nurses and hospital staff protesting over unpaid wages and arguing with administrators. The protesters included Dr. Felix Gill who has been waiting for his monthly salary since May.

Sister Theresa Crasta is the only woman religious from India who was rescued by the Indian government from Afghanistan in August after
the Taliban captured Kabul. Crasta belongs to the Congregation of the Sisters of Charity of Saints Bartolomea Capitanio and Vincenza Gerosa, or Sisters of Maria Bambina, an Italian congregation that was involved in educating special needs children in Afghanistan.
Crasta comes from Bela village under the Mangalore Diocese in Kerala on the border of Karnataka state in south western India. The 49-year-old nun went to Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, in 2018 after her silver jubilee in the congregation. She served in the only special needs school of its kind in Afghanistan set up by men and women major superior groups in Italy.
After her rescue and two-week quarantine, she visited her family home in Bela and very recently has returned to her Holy Angels Convent, also known as Belvedere, in the Mangalore Diocese to await reassignment.
Crasta shared with Global Sisters Report her experiences of working with special needs children in Afghanistan as well as her rescue from the war-stricken country.
“To be honest, I really did not want to come back. Even when my father died in May this year, I opted not to come. But after the sudden fall of Kabul to the Taliban, there was no option but to leave. I thank everyone who had helped me get out of that country”.
“I landed in Kabul November 1, 2018. No one had forced me to go there. I knew the situation in Afghanistan and the dangers involved before I chose to go there.

The Conference of Catholic Bishops of India (CCBI) has appointed coordinators for education, health, social service and media apostolates.
The appointment was made during the conference’s 87 executive committee meeting held September 21-22.
Salesian Father Joseph Manipadam, currently the coordinator for Education and Culture of Don Bosco Youth Animation for South Asia, is appointed the education coordinator.
Father Prakash Sagili from Cuddapah diocese in Andhra Pradesh is appointed the coordinator for the health apostolate.
Father Bipin Kumar Pani, currently the regional director of social service of Jharkhand Bishops’ Council, is appointed the social apostolate coordinator.
Father Cyril Victor Joseph from the Archdiocese of Bangalore has
been appointed the media coordinator. He is currently the secretary for the Commission for Social Communication and Director of Paalanaa Bhavan of the Archdiocese of Bangalore.

The Conference of Catholic Bishops’ of India (CCBI) has established a Bioethics Forum and appointed Father Christopher Vimalraj from the Archdiocese of Bangalore as its first director. Bioethics is generally understood to refer to the ethical implications and applications of the health-related life sciences.
The decision to establish the Bioethics Forum was taken during the 87th Executive Committee meeting of the CCBI, held September 20-21.

Pope Francis accepts artwork from children as he meets with families from Afghanistan prior to his general audience in the Paul VI hall at the Vatican Sept. 22, 2021. The Pope met
three Christian families from Afghanistan – a total of 14 people, including seven children, who fled from Afghanistan.
When Pary Gul, a Christian woman from Afghanistan, met Pope Francis Sept. 22, she gave him her wedding ring as a reminder of her husband, who has disappeared and may be dead. According to the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, Pope Francis accepted the ring, but only on the condition that Gul keep it for him “as a commitment of friendship and a sign of hope.”
Gul, 57, was among 14 Afghan Christians who met the pope just before his weekly general audience. The Italian military helped the three Christian families to flee Kabul after the Taliban takeover in mid-August. They have been resettled in northern Italy by the Meet Human Foundation.
Gul was accompanied by her four children, who are between the ages of 14 and 25. She told L’Osservatore Romano that the children saved the family by sending out an SOS on their phones. They had been hiding in a cellar for four days.
“My husband first was fired and then arrested, and we have heard nothing more from him,” she said. She believes “someone probably denounced us for being Christians.”

A Christian leader in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh has accused the state government of inaction after six incidents of Christian attacks were reported within a week. The latest attack was reported from a remote village in Kabirdham district on Aug. 29. More than 100 Hindu activists beat up a pastor after barging into his house during a prayer service, said Mohit Garg, superintendent of police for the district. The mob also manhandled Pastor Kawalsingh Paraste’s family members and vandalized the house, damaging scriptures, articles of worship and household items, before fleeing. The incident occurred in Polmi village around 11am when the Sunday prayer service was underway, Garg said.
“It is very unfortunate that we have witnessed repeated attacks on our Christian brothers and sisters last week. But it is nothing new. We have documented more than 200 such incidents in the state during the past two years,” Chhattisgarh Christian Forum president Arun Pannalal told.
He said what was more unfortunate was that every time the government would try to play down the incidents and push for a compromise between the attackers and their victims. “Few of them will be called to the police station but no first information report [documenting the initial details of the incident] will be registered,” he said.
Police inaction and the government’s failures had made the Christian faithful in the state insecure and disturbed social harmony, the Christian lay leader alleged.
Meanwhile, police said the pastor was accused of being involved in religious conversion activities by his attackers who also raised slogans against him.
Pannalal told media that members of all Christian denominations in the state had met recently in Bilaspur town where they discussed ways to defend their community leaders and places of worship against similar attacks. “We will approach the Supreme Court for justice with all the required evidence,” he said.
Chhattisgarh has in place an anti-conversion law enacted during the rule of the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The Chhattisgarh Freedom of Religion (Amendment) Act, 2006, requires anybody wanting to change religion to seek permission from district authorities at least 30 days in advance.

Pope Francis has appointed Father Varghese Vinayanand Vekkal as the apostolic administrator of the Gurgaon Syro-Malankara diocese.
The appointment came August 28, two days after Bishop Jacob Barnabas Chacko Aerath of Gurgaon died of post Covid complications in a private hospital in New Delhi. The gathering at St Mary’s Cathedral, Neb Sarai, New DelhiAn official communication from Cardinal Baselios Cleemis, head of the Syro-Malankara Church, said the appointment took effect from August 28.

A parish in Kerala on September 5 witnessed unruly scenes when its priest tried to read a pastoral letter from the head of the Syro-Malabar Church during the Sunday Mass.
A section of parishioners of the Holy Family Church at Prasannapuram near Aluva rushed to the altar to prevent the priest from reading the letter from Cardinal George Alencherry.

Cardinal Oswald Gracias, head of the Catholic Church in India, on September 13 joined political and social leaders to mourn the death of Oscar Fernandes, a former federal minister. Fernandes, a member of the Congress party, died earlier in the day at Mangaluru, a port town in Karnataka state. He was hospitalized after he suffered an injury in July. He was 80. Fernandes was being treated the ICU at Yenepoya Hospital in Mangaluru after the fall during his regular morning yoga sessions.
He is survived by his wife Blossom Fernandes, son, and a daughter.

A pastor and two others were beaten up by a right-wing mob inside a police station in Raipur, capital of the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh.
The mob accused the pastor of indulging in forced religious conversions. The September 5 attack occurred after heated arguments between the mob and those who accompanied the pastor to the police station where they were called for questioning.
The incident took place at the Purani Basti police station in Raipur. The police had received complaints of forced religious conversions being carried out in the Bhatagaon area. A few local right-wing Hindutva leaders, too, reached the police station shortly after.
The complainants were furious and gheraoed the building demanding action against those carrying out such conversion. The arrival of the pastor, along with some Christians of the Bhatagaon area, sparked the exchange of words between the mob and those called in for questioning.
The pastor was then taken into the station in-charge’s room where the tense situation only worsened. Soon the pastor was subjected to physical assault, officials said. A video of the incident shows some members hitting the priest with slippers and shoes.